[size=60]James Nesbitt: The Missing is a thriller, it isn't about the Madeleine McCann case[/size]Oct 25, 2014 10:00

By Susanna Galton

The Irish actor relished taking on the emotionally taxing role of a father whose son disappears while on holiday abroad - buit he insists it is just a work of fiction

BBCLost in France: James Nesbitt in The Missing

Having a child go missing is every parent’s worst nightmare. And James Nesbitt’s new TV drama begins in 2006, when a five-year-old boy seemingly vanishes into thin air.The Irish actor stars as heartbroken Tony Hughes, who is on a family holiday in France with his wife Emily (Frances O’Connor) and son Olly. When he goes to buy a drink for the child in a busy French bar, Olly is swallowed up by the crowd – never to be seen again.An epic manhunt is launched, and the eight-part series follows every gripping twist and turn along the way.“It was very intense filming it,” admits James, 49, who’s a dad in real life to daughters Peggy, 17, and Mary, 12.“That thing of briefly losing sight of a child happened to me when the kids were younger and you can’t see them in the supermarket, or wherever. It’s a terrible, terrible moment... the most unimaginable horror.“What defines Tony is the sheer guilt he has. He’s constantly thinking, ‘What if I hadn’t gone to the bar at that point? What if I’d never let go of his hand? That all stays with him until the end of the drama.”The French police face an uphill struggle to find Olly, while Tony and Emily are in a foreign land, unable to speak the language or understand the rules. As their story becomes public, Tony and Emily find themselves thrown into a media maelstrom, learning the hard way that not everyone has their best interests at heart.Viewers will undoubtedly be reminded of the Madeleine McCann case, yet James denies this was intentional.“That’s bound to be in the subconscious,” he agrees, “but this is more a thriller. There are twists and it became a bit of a whodunit.”The action flashes between 2006 and the present day, where we see that Emily has tried to move on with her life while Tony is totally consumed by the hunt.To get into the mindset of the obsessed father, James cut himself off from the cast and crew while filming took place in Brussels.“I lived by myself,” he says, “and I got the art department to give me all the police clippings and files Tony would have had. I tried to live the isolated existence he would have done.”After spending more than two years playing dwarf Bofur in the three movie adaptations of The Hobbit, the Cold Feet star was grateful for a darker, dramatic role.“I had a fantastic experience in New Zealand,” James smiles, “but it was nice to come back and take on something meaty.”James, who split from his wife Sonia last year, turns 50 in January.“I think I’ll just play some golf with my mates,” he says, “and I’ll let my daughters take me out for dinner, spending my money. Or I’ll just sit in a dark room and cry!”

"Viewers will undoubtedly be reminded of the Madeleine McCann case, yet James denies this was intentional."

Nope sorry there's no resemblance to the McCann case unless the McCanns are the only people on Earth who's child has gone missing.

____________________"It is my belief that Scotland Yard was set out on a mission, not one to find out what happened to Madeleine McCann but to rewrite the history of the case in such a way that the majority of the public simply forgets the past." - The Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency

@Miraflores wrote:Much more like the case of the little girl who disappeared from an Army base supermarket in Germany, Katrice Lee, but who got nothing like the publicity which Madeleine McCann did.

Katrice Lee's mother and sister were sat on daytime telly sofa's alongside the McCanns and a senior police officer - funny that - up until that time the disappearance of Katrice Lee was virtually ignored by the press. Of course the McCanns were given more minutes of speaking during the slot.

Ben Needham's disappearance has also been used....remember the digging operation in Kos - widespread media coverage on that. The problem is, that sod all had been done about his disappearance until there was no option other than to do something for Ben or be seen to be completely biased/doing nothing for the search for Ben.

The disappearance of Ben Needham was needed to reinforce Madeleine's disappearance imo.

Ben Needham's mum subsequently wrote a book (I bought it) - it seems everyone is now encouraged to write a book. I shan't give my opinion on the book. This is, imo, the Team McCann model.

These three children, Ben Needham, Katrice Lee and Madeleine McCann are the only children shown on Missing Kids website as 'missing abroad'. The case of Katrice Lee was very different from Madeleine - Katrice was domicile in Germany. Ben Needham was domicile in Kos.

There is a whole new fear factor of statistics quoted by Missing People as to how many children go missing in UK - I'd love to see proof of these statistics.

There is a whole new xenophobic fear factor of blonde, blue-eyed children going missing abroad - and yet only three are quoted.

Ben Affleck had not heard of the case of Madeleine McCann when he put the finishing touches to Gone Baby Gone, the provocative thriller that marks his directing debut.But when the film's British distributors pointed out it bore marked similarities to Madeleine's case, he immediately went along with their decision to pull it from the line-up of the London Film Festival and suspend its release in the UK indefinitely, even if it means that cinemagoers in Britain will have to wait a long time to see his maiden directing effort."Disney UK made the decision to postpone the movie but I absolutely support it and I'm pleased by what I think is erring on the side of good taste," he says."There's no rush. It's obviously a sensitive time and if there are any similarities we can wait to distribute the movie in the UK."I was only vaguely aware of the Madeleine case because it wasn't a big thing here in the United States. Maybe I'm out of it because I don't read many newspapers, but I didn't really know much about it until somebody said, 'Hey, there may be some similarities.'?"Gone Baby Gone, set in Affleck's home town of Boston and based on a hard-boiled detective novel by Dennis Lehane, could be the movie that gains the likeable Affleck the film industry respect that his varied but usually mediocre film roles have yet to earn him.He does a creditable job of directing his emotionally wrenching story. The movie's missing four-year-old girl, named Amanda McCreadie and portrayed by a young actress named Madeleine O'Brien, bears a strong resemblance to Madeleine McCann and, as in the McCann case, the hunt for her is conducted in the glare of the media spotlight.But the similarities end there: the movie veers into a realm of drug dealers, ex-convicts, child abusers, broken families and bitter police officers.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/3668478/Ben-Affleck-Why-my-Madeleine-film-had-to-be-pulled.html

The 'police' asked for a 'recent' photo which (Nesbitt) produced from the digital camera. a photo of the 'missing' child 'taken just a few hours before the boy's 'disappearance'.

Remind me, didn't KM have a 'recent' photo of Madeleine in her camera, taken just a few hours before her child's 'disappearance'?

So (nesbitt's) most recent photo on posters/flyers within HOURS, KM's recent 'last photo, by pool' taken a few hours before her child's 'disappearance' takes THREE WEEKS to 'appear' on 'posters/flyers'

First episode - saw it - really good and it definitely isn't about Madeleine McCann because the parents in 'Missing' actually cared and made an effort to look for the missing child, so it's nothing like the McCann case at all.

Ben Affleck had not heard of the case of Madeleine McCann when he put the finishing touches to Gone Baby Gone, the provocative thriller that marks his directing debut.But when the film's British distributors pointed out it bore marked similarities to Madeleine's case, he immediately went along with their decision to pull it from the line-up of the London Film Festival and suspend its release in the UK indefinitely, even if it means that cinemagoers in Britain will have to wait a long time to see his maiden directing effort."Disney UK made the decision to postpone the movie but I absolutely support it and I'm pleased by what I think is erring on the side of good taste," he says."There's no rush. It's obviously a sensitive time and if there are any similarities we can wait to distribute the movie in the UK."I was only vaguely aware of the Madeleine case because it wasn't a big thing here in the United States. Maybe I'm out of it because I don't read many newspapers, but I didn't really know much about it until somebody said, 'Hey, there may be some similarities.'?"Gone Baby Gone, set in Affleck's home town of Boston and based on a hard-boiled detective novel by Dennis Lehane, could be the movie that gains the likeable Affleck the film industry respect that his varied but usually mediocre film roles have yet to earn him.He does a creditable job of directing his emotionally wrenching story. The movie's missing four-year-old girl, named Amanda McCreadie and portrayed by a young actress named Madeleine O'Brien, bears a strong resemblance to Madeleine McCann and, as in the McCann case, the hunt for her is conducted in the glare of the media spotlight.But the similarities end there: the movie veers into a realm of drug dealers, ex-convicts, child abusers, broken families and bitter police officers.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/3668478/Ben-Affleck-Why-my-Madeleine-film-had-to-be-pulled.html

I missed Ben Affleck's film 'Gone Baby Gone' too, Joss, but it isn't about Madeleine per se and, although the release of this film to UK cinemas may still be on hold, it is available to download or buy on dvd - which, given that it's based on a novel by Dennis Lehane of Mystic River fame, has a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and garnered a slew of prestigious awards, I intend to do tonight

While John Hiscock's Telegraph article dated October 2007 has it that the similarities end when the movie "veers into a realm of drug dealers, ex-convicts, child abusers, broken families and bitter police officers" it seems to me that, 7 years on, the writer may have cause to eat rewrite his words

Ben Affleck had not heard of the case of Madeleine McCann when he put the finishing touches to Gone Baby Gone, the provocative thriller that marks his directing debut.But when the film's British distributors pointed out it bore marked similarities to Madeleine's case, he immediately went along with their decision to pull it from the line-up of the London Film Festival and suspend its release in the UK indefinitely, even if it means that cinemagoers in Britain will have to wait a long time to see his maiden directing effort."Disney UK made the decision to postpone the movie but I absolutely support it and I'm pleased by what I think is erring on the side of good taste," he says."There's no rush. It's obviously a sensitive time and if there are any similarities we can wait to distribute the movie in the UK."I was only vaguely aware of the Madeleine case because it wasn't a big thing here in the United States. Maybe I'm out of it because I don't read many newspapers, but I didn't really know much about it until somebody said, 'Hey, there may be some similarities.'?"Gone Baby Gone, set in Affleck's home town of Boston and based on a hard-boiled detective novel by Dennis Lehane, could be the movie that gains the likeable Affleck the film industry respect that his varied but usually mediocre film roles have yet to earn him.He does a creditable job of directing his emotionally wrenching story. The movie's missing four-year-old girl, named Amanda McCreadie and portrayed by a young actress named Madeleine O'Brien, bears a strong resemblance to Madeleine McCann and, as in the McCann case, the hunt for her is conducted in the glare of the media spotlight.But the similarities end there: the movie veers into a realm of drug dealers, ex-convicts, child abusers, broken families and bitter police officers.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/3668478/Ben-Affleck-Why-my-Madeleine-film-had-to-be-pulled.html

I missed Ben Affleck's film 'Gone Baby Gone' too, Joss, but it isn't about Madeleine per se and, although the release of this film to UK cinemas may still be on hold, it is available to download or buy on dvd - which, given that it's based on a novel by Dennis Lehane of Mystic River fame, has a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and garnered a slew of prestigious awards, I intend to do tonight

While John Hiscock's Telegraph article dated October 2007 has it that the similarities end when the movie "veers into a realm of drug dealers, ex-convicts, child abusers, broken families and bitter police officers" it seems to me that, 7 years on, the writer may have cause to eat rewrite his words

I watched it way back and it was nothing like the McCann case. I quite enjoyed the film and the ending was as I expected. I never could understand why it was pulled.

@Miraflores wrote:Much more like the case of the little girl who disappeared from an Army base supermarket in Germany, Katrice Lee, but who got nothing like the publicity which Madeleine McCann did.

Yes I remember that case well, being in the forces at the time it kind of made it so personal. They never found her though sadly. I think her case far more reflects the series The Missing then the McCanns.

I don't remember the Katrice Lee case getting any publicity whatsoever at the time. I'm sure that it would have stuck in my mind as my son was then a year older than her and, like all parents, I'd had the odd fright of my life when he wandered off in a shop.

Ben Affleck had not heard of the case of Madeleine McCann when he put the finishing touches to Gone Baby Gone, the provocative thriller that marks his directing debut.But when the film's British distributors pointed out it bore marked similarities to Madeleine's case, he immediately went along with their decision to pull it from the line-up of the London Film Festival and suspend its release in the UK indefinitely, even if it means that cinemagoers in Britain will have to wait a long time to see his maiden directing effort."Disney UK made the decision to postpone the movie but I absolutely support it and I'm pleased by what I think is erring on the side of good taste," he says."There's no rush. It's obviously a sensitive time and if there are any similarities we can wait to distribute the movie in the UK."I was only vaguely aware of the Madeleine case because it wasn't a big thing here in the United States. Maybe I'm out of it because I don't read many newspapers, but I didn't really know much about it until somebody said, 'Hey, there may be some similarities.'?"Gone Baby Gone, set in Affleck's home town of Boston and based on a hard-boiled detective novel by Dennis Lehane, could be the movie that gains the likeable Affleck the film industry respect that his varied but usually mediocre film roles have yet to earn him.He does a creditable job of directing his emotionally wrenching story. The movie's missing four-year-old girl, named Amanda McCreadie and portrayed by a young actress named Madeleine O'Brien, bears a strong resemblance to Madeleine McCann and, as in the McCann case, the hunt for her is conducted in the glare of the media spotlight.But the similarities end there: the movie veers into a realm of drug dealers, ex-convicts, child abusers, broken families and bitter police officers. THAT'S ALLRIGHT THEN!http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/3668478/Ben-Affleck-Why-my-Madeleine-film-had-to-be-pulled.html

Ben Affleck had not heard of the case of Madeleine McCann when he put the finishing touches to Gone Baby Gone, the provocative thriller that marks his directing debut.But when the film's British distributors pointed out it bore marked similarities to Madeleine's case, he immediately went along with their decision to pull it from the line-up of the London Film Festival and suspend its release in the UK indefinitely, even if it means that cinemagoers in Britain will have to wait a long time to see his maiden directing effort."Disney UK made the decision to postpone the movie but I absolutely support it and I'm pleased by what I think is erring on the side of good taste," he says."There's no rush. It's obviously a sensitive time and if there are any similarities we can wait to distribute the movie in the UK."I was only vaguely aware of the Madeleine case because it wasn't a big thing here in the United States. Maybe I'm out of it because I don't read many newspapers, but I didn't really know much about it until somebody said, 'Hey, there may be some similarities.'?"Gone Baby Gone, set in Affleck's home town of Boston and based on a hard-boiled detective novel by Dennis Lehane, could be the movie that gains the likeable Affleck the film industry respect that his varied but usually mediocre film roles have yet to earn him.He does a creditable job of directing his emotionally wrenching story. The movie's missing four-year-old girl, named Amanda McCreadie and portrayed by a young actress named Madeleine O'Brien, bears a strong resemblance to Madeleine McCann and, as in the McCann case, the hunt for her is conducted in the glare of the media spotlight.But the similarities end there: the movie veers into a realm of drug dealers, ex-convicts, child abusers, broken families and bitter police officers. THAT'S ALLRIGHT THEN!http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/3668478/Ben-Affleck-Why-my-Madeleine-film-had-to-be-pulled.html

The highlighted bit.I dispute that the similarities end there, I would say every one of those ingredients is becoming more and more apparent in the McC recipe.

I missed Ben Affleck's film 'Gone Baby Gone' too, Joss, but it isn't about Madeleine per se and, although the release of this film to UK cinemas may still be on hold, it is available to download or buy on dvd - which, given that it's based on a novel by Dennis Lehane of Mystic River fame, has a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and garnered a slew of prestigious awards, I intend to do tonight.

I'm sure I saw it on TV, the film's debut was delayed for 6 months. I'm glad I watched it but it was so heavy going, surely nobody swears as much as the whole lot of them did in this film (excepting for Morgan Freeman). That's what made me nearly turn it off - and I would have done but I wanted to see why the release date was set back - nothing like the McCanns' case I thought.And I don't think the McCann ending - if there ever is one- will be anywhere like the film's either.

Like others have said, this movie has little in common with this case outside a young girl going missing.

The tabloids did what they always do.....2+2=5. The 3 year old actress' real name was Madeleine so therefore it must be about her!

Edit: About the Missing. I don't hold out too much hope it being any better than say Broadchurch but there are some plot points that might be interesting (the reporter and French CID officer for example)

I just worry it turns out like Broadchurch which IMO was a traditional 2 hour drama stretched out to 8 hours. Not helped by the fact it gave away who the perp was in the first episode.

Ben Affleck had not heard of the case of Madeleine McCann when he put the finishing touches to Gone Baby Gone, the provocative thriller that marks his directing debut.But when the film's British distributors pointed out it bore marked similarities to Madeleine's case, he immediately went along with their decision to pull it from the line-up of the London Film Festival and suspend its release in the UK indefinitely, even if it means that cinemagoers in Britain will have to wait a long time to see his maiden directing effort."Disney UK made the decision to postpone the movie but I absolutely support it and I'm pleased by what I think is erring on the side of good taste," he says."There's no rush. It's obviously a sensitive time and if there are any similarities we can wait to distribute the movie in the UK."I was only vaguely aware of the Madeleine case because it wasn't a big thing here in the United States. Maybe I'm out of it because I don't read many newspapers, but I didn't really know much about it until somebody said, 'Hey, there may be some similarities.'?"Gone Baby Gone, set in Affleck's home town of Boston and based on a hard-boiled detective novel by Dennis Lehane, could be the movie that gains the likeable Affleck the film industry respect that his varied but usually mediocre film roles have yet to earn him.He does a creditable job of directing his emotionally wrenching story. The movie's missing four-year-old girl, named Amanda McCreadie and portrayed by a young actress named Madeleine O'Brien, bears a strong resemblance to Madeleine McCann and, as in the McCann case, the hunt for her is conducted in the glare of the media spotlight.But the similarities end there: the movie veers into a realm of drug dealers, ex-convicts, child abusers, broken families and bitter police officers.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/3668478/Ben-Affleck-Why-my-Madeleine-film-had-to-be-pulled.html

I missed Ben Affleck's film 'Gone Baby Gone' too, Joss, but it isn't about Madeleine per se and, although the release of this film to UK cinemas may still be on hold, it is available to download or buy on dvd - which, given that it's based on a novel by Dennis Lehane of Mystic River fame, has a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and garnered a slew of prestigious awards, I intend to do tonight

While John Hiscock's Telegraph article dated October 2007 has it that the similarities end when the movie "veers into a realm of drug dealers, ex-convicts, child abusers, broken families and bitter police officers" it seems to me that, 7 years on, the writer may have cause to eat rewrite his words

Thanks for your clarification about the movie. I haven't seen it myself and had not heard of it, but there was mention of it on another site i was reading, so i googled and watched a trailer about it on youtube that only went for a couple of minutes. Maybe i will download if i can and watch the full version.

@Casey5 wrote:I missed Ben Affleck's film 'Gone Baby Gone' too, Joss, but it isn't about Madeleine per se and, although the release of this film to UK cinemas may still be on hold, it is available to download or buy on dvd - which, given that it's based on a novel by Dennis Lehane of Mystic River fame, has a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and garnered a slew of prestigious awards, I intend to do tonight.

I'm sure I saw it on TV, the film's debut was delayed for 6 months. I'm glad I watched it but it was so heavy going, surely nobody swears as much as the whole lot of them did in this film (excepting for Morgan Freeman). That's what made me nearly turn it off - and I would have done but I wanted to see why the release date was set back - nothing like the McCanns' case I thought.And I don't think the McCann ending - if there ever is one- will be anywhere like the film's either.